Around 70 projects from 28 German universities were selected for the exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. The exhibition brings together work from product and industrial design, communication and digital design, as well as textile and fashion design. In all their diversity, the projects address some of the defining questions of our time. They also reveal the methods a new generation of designers is using to search for answers.
How can waste and leftover materials be transformed into new resources? How can digital technologies be used in meaningful ways? How can design communicate knowledge, enable greater participation in society or imagine new ways of living together?

The exhibition’s curatorial theme, Make It Make Sense, originates in internet culture. The phrase is used when familiar explanations no longer add up, contradictions become visible or a situation needs to be understood from a new perspective. Often used ironically, it also expresses a serious demand: to create connections and make complexity easier to understand.
Across different disciplines, the exhibits explore materials and production methods, technology and communication, as well as social transformation and new forms of living together. They question existing systems, test alternative processes and raise questions for which there are not yet any clear answers.
Together, the projects present a multifaceted picture of what design means today: a practice of observing and understanding, but also of intervening and creating change.

More about Make It Make Sense (GDG Homepage)

Participant. Project:
Julius Bahl. IVIS – Intravenous infusion system
Arne Becker. nothing reminds me of you
Charlotte Beigel. The Joy of Making
Jette Bödige. /DA UNTEN
Sophie Brady. Coffee for a Cause
Raphael Braham. Aesthetics, Architecture, Participatory Design: Learning with a Participatory Design process in a riverside community in Brazil
Celine Brussel. safe-in
Miriam Pujiula Buhl. Sicher ist sicher – Gestalterische Untersuchung, Konzeption und Umsetzung von Risikokommunikation für Krisen und Katastrophen
Felix Burau. Peer2Play
Antje Burckhardt. Repairing Access: Co-Designing Inclusive Repair Initiatives
Sari Dahle. Redesign for Circularity: Unterarmgehstütze cuRe
Nina Maria Drangmeister. Das Abenteuer-ABC: Mitmachen, Basteln, Entdecken. Gestalterisches Konzept und illustrative Umsetzung eines multifunktionalen Buchprojekts für Kinder
Ludwig Eder. Controlled Collapse: Gestaltung hybrider Materialien
Joy-Fabienne Enzmann. Unravel
Imani Fee Hallein & Mara Timea Kossira. 6min/11sek – Angepisst vom Warten?
(Die Gestaltung eines mobilen Urinals für menstruierende FLINTA*- Personen)
John Feldmann. KAMBIO – Nicht-invasive interne Baumdiagnostik
Caspar Fischer. To Brick or Not to Brick
Vera Freier. Format und Katastrophe
Nele Freisinger. nurVÉ – Bioactive knitwear that cares.
Linus Fritz. Komprimat
Samuel Goudefroy. Astro – Modular device for mindful media use
Erik Grunder. 2.5
Marie Hansen & Lara Baron. KILL YOUR DARLINGS
Maximilian Herzen. I am [not] a Robot — Realization of an event featuring three interactive installations exploring online identity verification
Antonia Hinterdobler. Acquiring, storing, curating, sharing and deleting – On the changing cultural practices of collecting and deleting in the context of digitality
Leon Hofmann. keine Kinkerlitzchen
Kitti Horvat. ver(f)altet
Susie Itandehui Heuberger.  The Criminal Body
Yeqi Jia. Vagakey
Zion Vic Junge. black aesthetics: decentering white aesthetics
Jana Junker. Repetition – Material in Motion
Maja Kaiser. Zeit in Form
Lucia Antonia Kempe. Is there a life before death?
Dabin Kim. Hyperculture – Cultural practices across East and West
Viccha Kreng. Dark Oxygen
Michelle Likkej. Retroscan
Zieshan Haider Malik. Vimoo – Shared Mobility for Greater Independence
Mika Meinck. Knot. An exploration in theory, experiment and design
Marilèna Michael. An Ode to Algae. Algae as a potential food source in Europe. Investigating an overlooked resource
Therese Mieth. XOXO – About Gossip, Stories, and Textile Crafts
Tim Milwa. Kaleido – Intelligent Tools of Meaning Making in Design
Alina Moldenhauer. Interkultureller Kalender 2026
Noah Müller. Mounted eye protection for occupational safety
Leonard Neuberger. Sofia Hand
Laura Neuscheler. SALVINIA
Johanna Oehmen. midia
Karl Oetken. Participatory Concepts for Music Education Design
Mia Pahl. Eine Hommage an die Katzenwäsche
Maike Panz. Matter of Connectedness – An Embodied Design Research Through Collecting and Making
Seo Young Park. Login_Sanctuary_
Mechthild Pfütze. Freya
Max Popp. Vom Ankerloch zum Ankerpunkt
Marco Pröfrock. 500l/s -Stuttgart Mineral Water
Korinna Rennefeld. ephemer – der anfang im ende
Jens Riesenberg. HADES – Digital cave archive
Alexander Sauther. Ich kann dir nicht sagen wie sehr mein Herz brennt – Accessoires gegen die Auslöschung von trans* Identität im deutschen Faschismus
Emily Schoc. VENTO Plus – Breathe without compromise
Philip Scholz. NEST: Private Energy Storage for the Energy Transition
Nicole Schönherr. Talking Textiles
Julika Schwarz & Louisa Graupe. Water from Air
Miriam Seith. UNSeen: Outlining Antifeminist Structures in the United Nations
Vivien Serve. Navigating futures with data visualization
Konstantin Sorge. Nexus – A New Urban Node
Jonathan Stein (Project Contributor: Helen Hausdorf). Proving Presence
Catherina Stuckmann. Matter – Potentials of Industrial by-products
Nina Stürner. Between echo and resonance
Michelle Tiepermann. AEONA – reproductive design
Leonidas von Bothmer. Is this still me or where do I end?
Freia Antonia Weiß. Soft Shade
Carla Wirths. Schön war’s – und jetzt?
Elena Wüllner. WHAT CAN AI DO?